LANSING, MI - A national education advocacy group gives Michigan relatively good marks for its school policies compared to most other states, but says there is plenty of room for improvement.

StudentsFirst – a group launched by former Washington DC public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee -- unveiled its first “state policy report card” on Monday. Michigan received an overall grade of C-minus – but that’s sixth-best in the survey, trailing only Louisiana, Florida, Indiana, the District of Columbia and Rhode Island.

No state got better than a 'B-' and 11 states received an F. StudentsFirst says the overall results raise “serious questions” about whether states’ education laws and practices are contributing to student success.

The report cards focus on policy, not student test scores. The rankings tend to favor some of the changes Michigan has pursued with a Republican-led Legislature and governor over the past couple of years. StudentsFirst gives Michigan good reviews for items such as changes to the teacher tenure and evaluation system, and for new programs such as the Education Achievement Authority – designed to be a statewide district for academically struggling schools, although it now includes only 15 Detroit public schools.

Some of those changes have drawn opposition from teachers unions and in some cases traditional K-12 school districts.

StudentsFirst lobbied on behalf of the teacher tenure changes approved by the Michigan Legislature and has been involved in other issues as well. A political action committee affiliated with the group contributed to oppose Proposal 2 on Michigan's November ballot. The proposal, which voters defeated, would have guaranteed collective bargaining rights in the state constitution and undone some state laws. StudentsFirst said it wanted to preserve some of education Michigan's reforms that could have been wiped out by Proposal 2.

StudentsFirst likes some elements of where the state is headed, but made suggestions for improvement.

“Michigan has made significant progress in putting students first in its education policies and must continue on its path forward,” StudentsFirst says in its report. “The state has adopted meaningful teacher evaluations, and it should make principal evaluations just as meaningful. Michigan requires districts to link personnel decisions, as well as salary levels, to classroom effectiveness. The state could do more to empower parents by providing them with useful information regarding school and teacher performance. Michigan must also strengthen accountability for public charter schools and remove arbitrary barriers to their growth. Low-income students in Michigan would also benefit from a publicly funded opportunity scholarship program. The state has strong governance flexibility and recently took steps to free teachers locked into the existing pension system by offering more portable retirement options to new employees.”

The report card included three main areas.

Michigan ranked first in the “spend wisely and govern well” category with a B grade. StudentsFirst noted the EAA in this category, along with provisions that allow districts to contract or privatize for services in some cases.

Michigan ranked seventh with a 'B-' in the “elevate teaching” category. The state’s teacher tenure reforms factor into this grade. StudentsFirst says Michigan should advance its policies by more tightly linking student growth to evaluations.

Michigan ranked 34th with an F grade in the “empower parents” category. Michigan lawmakers have approved a law that will require parents to be notified if students are placed with teachers who are rated as “ineffective” over a certain period. But StudentsFirst says that should be toughened to require that parents actively consent to allowing their children to be placed in a classroom led by an ineffective teacher. A bill that would have done that stalled in the Legislature last year.